Brussels/Frankfurt/Paris, Mar. 2, (dpa-AFX/GNA) – Eurozone inflation accelerated further in February to hit a fresh record high driven by energy prices, the flash estimate from Eurostat showed on Wednesday.
Inflation advanced to 5.8% in February from 5.1% in January. Inflation was forecast to climb to 5.3%.
Core inflation that excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco increased to 2.7% from 2.3% in the previous month.
Among components of inflation, energy logged another sharp growth of 31.7%. This was followed by a 4.1% rise in food, alcohol and tobacco prices.
Non-energy industrial goods prices were up 3% and services cost grew 2.5%.
On a monthly basis, the harmonized index of consumer prices moved up 0.9%.
The final data is due on March 17.
Further spikes are likely in the near term due to the war in Ukraine, but the European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to refrain from clear commitments on the monetary path next week as economic uncertainty is massive, Bert Colijn, an ING economist, said.
After February’s surprisingly strong inflation outturn and with energy prices surging, eurozone inflation is very likely to rise above 6% in the coming months, Jack Allen-Reynolds, an economist at Capital Economics, said.
It then looks set to remain well above the ECB’s target for a long time, most likely ending the year around 4%, the economist added.
Among big-four nations, Spain posted annual inflation of 7.5% in February and Italy’s rate was 6.2%. Germany and France logged 5.5% and 4.1%, respectively.
GNA